THE TRACK (2025) plays SFFilm on 4/23 and Hot Docs on 4/27

In one second you can destroy everything, but to rebuild something you need years and years.

THE TRACK is why I love documentaries. No, THE TRACK is why I love the movies.  I love movies that tell me a great story, about things I don’t know or didn’t consider and take me away for a couple of hours. This is that sort of a film.

The film is the story of Senad who was at the Olympics in 1984 competing in the Luge in his home of Sarajevo.  He had dreams of greater glory, but the break up of Yugoslavia and the war that followed killed those dreams. 40 years on he has returned to the luge track in his city track , beaten and battered over time, and  with a few hopeful young men(Mirza, Zlatan, and Hamza) he has repaired the track enough that they can practice in the summer and make a run of it in world competition in the winter.

This film haunts me. A wonderful tale of one man sharing what he loves with a new generation, the film says a great deal about life and the things we love. Its also a wonderful look at the long road back from war. The statement at the top is Senad‘s feeling about trying to bring back the former glory of his countries luge. Its an attitude I feel we need today in regard to all of the destruction we see around us.

A good as the film is I should warn you that this isn’t your typical sports doc building to some nail biting championship. Yes we see the young man eventually compete, but it’s as it happens and not part of some false dramatics. This is life as lived and it pulls us in and drags us along…and when it’s done we want to go again.

This is a great film and highly recommended

KISS THE FUTURE (2023) Tribeca 2023

I'm kind of sad that many of my fellow writers refused to see KISS THE FUTURE because they saw it as a U2 film. They didn't want to see a film about the rock group. The problem is that while U2 are part of the story, they are only a part of it, and so they missed a wonderful film.

To be fair I went into the film because it was the only one screening at the time that I hadn't seen.  The plan was that I would watch 15 or 20 minutes of this U2 movie and then jump to the next thing. Instead I ended up staying to the end and trying to find tissues in my bag.

The film is the story of Siege of Sarajevo. Its what happened when Yugoslavia broke up and the Bosnian leaders decided to use lies in order to wipe out the Muslim minorities that they had been living with peacefully for decades. As the war came the people of Sarajevo dug in and tried to survive. Like the present situation in Ukraine they turned to music and art to get by. Through circumstances U2 heard about how their music was helping them get by and promised to come play...and then they came up with the idea of making the war part of their Zoo TV tour.

Its a hell of a tale that you just need to see. There is a hope in the tale that will make you feel good. It's also a tale with incredible parallels to the war in Ukraine, which the film makes clear in the end. 

I was moved to tears several times. 

Forget that this a U2 film, forget that Matt Damon produced, just realize that this is great stopry wonderfully told that may help you get back you faith in humanity.

Highly recommended

Majnuni (2019) Slamdance 2020

Adnan drifts in and out of madness as he stalks a long ago love and her new family.

Dreamlike and hypnotic MAJNUNI is a film that is for anyone who wants to see a one of a kind portrait of a man lost in obsession. Dark moody and in your face watching the film you are definitely all in to the head space of out main character. It is a trip to the darkside of one man's psyche. One has to applaud director Kouros Alaghband for making a film that truly makes us see, and perhaps understand, the world in way different from our own.

The film works largely because of the performance Adnan Omerović, whose haunted eyes and searching expression draws us into trying to sort out what is going on behind his eyes.

A  word of warning, this film is not for everyone. It is very much an art film. There are long passages where nothing is said, we are left to ponder what is going on and make our own conclusions. This is a film you have to work with and not  be spoon fed by. If you are up for that and willing to see something with its own look and feel than MAJNUNI is worth seeing. If you want giant robots and explosions stay away.

Among Wolves (2017) opens Friday

After the better part of two years on the festival circuit AMONG WOLVES is finally reaching theaters Friday with a week long theatrical event in Chicago beginning at the Music Box Theater where they will be doing screenings, panels and other events celebrating the film. The film then hits VOD and DVD on the 12th.

The film follows the members of the Wolves motorcycle club in Bosnia. made up of mostly war vets the club has taken it upon themselves to watch over the wild horses in the area. The horses were the vets constant companions during the war and they feel a camaraderie with them since they went through the same things the vets did. Once on the brink of disappearing the herd of horses has doubled in size since the men started caring for them.

Observational in nature AMONG WOLVES doesn't just focus on the horses but the lives of the men as well. The towns and villages where they live are still reeling from the effects of the war which destroyed the factories and income sources to such an extent that most young people are leaving if they get the chance. As for those who stay its a struggle for survival.

Leisurely paced the film moves like life in this part of Bosnia. Men work, hang out and spend time with the horses. At first it can seem a little taxing but once you click with it the film reveals all sorts of little insights to not only the lives of the man and horses but to life on a larger scale.

Filled with beautiful images of the horses in the wild this is a film you'll want to see on the big screen if you can. If you can't do try to make time to see it when you can just sit and watch it without distractions.

Recommended.

My Aunt in Sarajevo (2016) Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival 2017

A Swedish Bosnian co-production, MY AUNT IN SARAJEVO is a deeply moving meditation about war, memory, and our children. This hour long film has more truth and emotional heft than most other films running twice as long.

The plot of the film is simple, Sweden born Anja has a lot of questions concerning her heritage. The daughter of Zlatan, who escaped from Sarajevo in 1992, she knows very little of her father’s country or even her father’s past. Wanting to know more she books a trip  to Sarajevo in order to find answers. She is happy when her dad agrees to go since she may get him to talk about the past. The key "reason" they are going is to visit an aunt to whom Zlatan has been sending money to for years. However what they find once they arrive what happens is not what either one is expecting.

At times funny and at other times deeply moving this film is as wonderful a viewing experience as I’ve had in a long time. This was a film that touched my head and my heart. This is good time with good people.

One of the things that makes this film so special is that its carefully modulated story forces us to really consider not only what we remember of the past, but what we tell future generations. Are we keeping our children safe by not telling them what happened or are we hurting them? Additionally what are we doing to ourselves? These are not easy answers because dealing with them opens us up to thoughts and feelings we may not want to deal with.

Over the course  of the film Zlatan  changes as he comes to terms with what happened three decades earlier, thanks to connecting with "lost" friends and family, including Anja who begins to understand why her dad was so reluctant to talk.  We watch as Zlatan becomes freer because he deals with the losses of the past.

For me there is a beautiful visual metaphor in the film where the lovely city of Sarajevo which seems largely rebuilt and fine for much of the film, but is suddenly seen to be chipped broken and bullet ridden. Yes, like Zlatan, it is together, but there is damage if you look closer. However at the same time life is going on. It’s a sort of obvious trick but when it how it is deployed in the film results in an audible gasp.

I loved this film a great deal. It is an important film about the cost of war and what is really important in life.

A must see when it plays at Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival Thursday night. For tickets and more information go here.

All the Cities of the North (2016) New York Film Festival 2016 Projections

Getting one screening as part of the New York Film Festival's Projection series (Tickets here) ALL THE CITIES OF THE NORTH will either thrill you or bore you to tears. Its a moody art film where not much is said and most of the spoken words are voice overs about other things

The film is nominally about two guys living together in an abandoned resort village They go through their paces while we get voice overs explaining various tangentially related subjects (building arranged as star systems and the like). A third man arrives and the balance is upset

Longish static shots, brooding silence and voice overs make this a 100 minutes of either joy or boredom depending upon where you fall in the cinematic spectrum. The fact that it is screening as part of the Projections sidebar says a great deal about the moodiness and demeanor of the film This is not a film for all audiences  or even most audiences, it's slow obtuse way of doing things making it perfect for a self selecting audience

Personally I like this sort of thing when there is something to hook into, but for me there wasn't anything This was 100 minutes of guys wandering around and by the time it started to get interesting (relatively speaking) I was lost to it to the point that I was only half watching my Festival Scope screener while I doodled in my notebook

If you like arty avant garde stuff you'll eat this up. All other stay away

LIONHEART and TIGERS at BOSNIAN-HERZEGOVINIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2016

Friday night I went to see one program at the Bosnian Herzegovinian Film Festival in New York. The original plan was to attend the whole thing but I didn't think what weekend this was so I forgot I had conflicts. (I'm still working on getting reviews up for all of the features.)

Before the film I met up with Joe Bendel and his mother. She's a lovely woman and great fun to talk to.

Introducing the evenings program

The evenings program began with the short LIONHEART. The film is the story of a woman who took a job at  hotel thinking she would be working in the kitchen. Instead she ended up a sex worker who tried to kill herself and only got free when she agreed to marry a man who bought her freedom, though even then she ended up in an abusive relationship.

The film is a matter of fact telling of her life supplemented by stories from two officials who explain the cultural background of  why it happened and the sex trade. Its a punch in the face and as the film goes on you feel waited down by the story. Its a really good film that doesn't go for shock and awe but bowls you over with its quiet power

The short was paired with Danis Tanovic's TIGERS from 2014. Tanovich's NO MAN'S LAND won the Oscar in 2001 and rattled cages.  That his TIGERS has not been seen in the US until now suggests that its crushing power, which is directed full bore at Nestle and other makers of infant formula, is something the companies in the cross-hairs don't want seen.

TIGERS tells the story of Ayan, a stand in for whistleblower Syed Aamir Raza whose life story is pretty much what we see on screen. A film crew is attempting to ascertain how true his story is. They want to tell his story but want to know if they are going to be sued into the stone age. After debating if they can use the real company name (the real life Nestle which is seen fleetingly) they decide against it and change the name and then Ayan tells his story.

Ayan was a pharmaceutical salesman  who wasn't having luck selling locally made drugs because everyone wanted those from the Western multinationals. Seeing an ad to work for just such a multinational he talks his way into getting hired. The product is baby formula and Ayan is one of the best salesmen. Several years in he discovers that the formula is killing children. Poor parents are cutting the formula with impure water to make it go farther and its causing children to die from dehydration, a problem the company had been aware of for decades. He quits and decides to blow the whistle but the road is dangerous.

Tanovic has made a film that manages to over come some uneven performances and a couple of bumps to be a film that will rock your world.

And I mean it will rock your f-ing world.

It has been ages, since I've seen a film where when the film ended no one moved. No one spoke, No one did anything except stare at the screen shell shocked. When it was done and the lights came up every one got up and silently walked to the exit and the street. No one talked until they hit the doors to the street. Joe, his mom and I just sort of staggered to the subway

While most certainly a narrative and a messy polemic, the film is also a kind of straight on documentary. These things happened and are happening, the statement at the end that the film contains footage of dying children from when the film was shot in 2013 produced an audible creak in the theater as if the whole audience shifted in their seats in absolute horror.

It is not a lie to say that seeing TIGERS was one of the most powerful cinematic experiences of my life. It may not be conventionally one of the best films ever made but is one of the most ass kicking. It's a poke in the eye and a boot on the throat and a quiet whisper in your ear "Children are dying what are you going to do about it?"

Highly recommended

If you need to know why BHFF is one of the best kept secrets in NYC its because a film like TIGERS or any of the other films will screen, blow its audience away, and unfairly barely register on the rest of the film world in New York. Next year you all have to go to the festival- you will thank me.

In Brief: Our Everyday Life (2016) BOSNIAN-HERZEGOVINIAN FILM FESTIVAL 2016

The Bosnia Herzegovinian submission to the Oscars OUR EVERYDAY LIFE is a look at a modern middle class family struggling to get by.

As the patriarch struggles to maintain control of his company, his wife struggles to get along. Their son is a slacker and their daughter, having left the country during the war only contacts them via Skype. Revelations are soon coming that will shake the family to it's core.

A typical modern family drama spiced up with the lingering shadows of a not long ago war and the effects of the country still being rocked from the change from Communism to Capitalism, OUR EVERYDAY LIFE over comes it's seeming run of the mill story thanks to stunning performances and a visual style that plunks us down in the middle of the action. Scenes play out in longish takes which allow the actors to really let go in their performances.

This is a super little film, that while may not be the best of the best, manages to take a the domestic drama genre and turn it into a something that is special and worth going out of your way to see.

OUR EVERYDAY LIFE plays Friday night at SVA. For tickets and more information go here.

Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival Starts May 21

The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival starts May 21 and runs through the 23rd and its great little festival.

I was turned on to the festival last year by friend of Unseen Films Joe Bendel. Joe absolutely loves the festival. He thinks it’s the best festival most people have never heard of. To him it’s a perfect balance of great films and great people (Joe loves the organizers and the attendees). Based on my brief contact with the festival last year I have to agree, it rocks.

As I write this tickets are on sale and you should buy a whole bunch. I’m trying to work out my plans for attending the festival with Joe.

To help you decide what to see I’ve put the press release for the festival below with all the details below.


PROGRAM ANNOUNCED FOR THE TWELFTH ANNUAL BOSNIAN-HERZEGOVINIAN FILM FESTIVAL (BHFF™)

Online Tickets Sales Are Now Open!

New York City, April 2015 – The Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival (BHFF) has announced the film lineup for its twelfth annual edition. A total of 14 films will screen Thursday through Saturday, May 21-23 at Tribeca Cinemas in New York City. They include four feature films, four short films, and six documentaries.

The selection covers a broad range of subjects and includes two feature comedy dramas, Love Island and A Quintet, a crime drama Racket and an omnibus feature tribute to city of Sarajevo, The Bridges of Sarajevo, featuring renowned European filmmakers. The documentary film selection will cover topics inspired by the hundreth anniversary of World War I in Sarajevo Assassination, homecomings in Bad Blood and Pretty Village, and an analytical dissection of the final years’ work of The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia on the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Accords in Seeking Truth in the Balkans. Dear Lastan! is a documentary filled with nostalgias for the days of growing up in former Yugoslavia; it is juxtaposed by the vivid imagery of childhood in wartime, presented in the award-winning short fiction film The Chicken. On the Verge is an essayistic portrait of Sarajevo and shows the city as it undergoes several changes in early 2014. Other short fiction films also included this year will address issues of family values and problems in Toy Car and Mercy, while Redemption shows the power of forgiveness.

The festival received more than 40 film submissions this year from all over the world. The films selected into the BHFF’s final program represent a wide range of talents and themes from the following countries: Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The complete PROGRAM and TICKETS are AVAILABLE NOW at http://www.bhffnyc.org/program.html. Tickets for each film block are $15. They can be purchased NOW until Thursday, May 21, 2015 at 3 p.m. ET. All films have English subtitles.

Program at a Glance:

Thursday, May 21st, 2015:
Block 1: 7:00 p.m. The Chicken | Dear Lastan!
Block 2: 9:00 p.m. Toy Car | Love Island

Friday, May 22nd, 2015:
Block 3: 7:00 p.m. Bad Blood | Pretty Village
Block 4: 9:00 p.m. On the Verge | The Bridges of Sarajevo

Saturday, May 23rd, 2015:
Block 5: 4:00 p.m. Sarajevo Assassination
Block 6: 5:00 p.m. Seeking Truth in The Balkans
Block 7: 6:30 p.m. Mercy | A Quintet
Block 8: 8:30 p.m. Redemption | Racket

Films selected to screen at the 12th Annual BHFF are eligible to win a number of honors including the Golden Apple audience and jury awards.

In 2015, the BHFF Jury consists of award-winning filmmaker and media executive Pamela Hogan and award-winning journalist Almin Karamehmedović. The BHFF will announce the third jury member in the coming days.

The jury will award the following honors to the most outstanding films: BHFF 2015 Jury Award for Best Documentary Film; BHFF 2015 Jury Award for Best Short Film and BHFF 2015 Jury Award for Best Feature Film. Films eligible for the Jury Award are all those screened at the BHFF 2015 that were produced in 2013, 2014 and 2015.

As always, the audience will select one film in any of the categories to receive the BHFF 2015 Audience Award for the Best Picture. All those attending the screening will be able to vote for the favorite film of this year’s Bosnian-Herzegovinian Film Festival. We hope to see you at the festival!

Detailed Program:

Thursday, May 21st, 2015
The Chicken - directed by Una Gunjak
The festival kicks off on Thursday with a screening of the award-winning short film The Chicken, directed by Sarajevo-born and London-based Una Gunjak. The film is set in Sarajevo in 1993. As a present for her sixth birthday, a young girl named Selma gets a live chicken. When she realizes the animal will be sacrificed to feed the family, she decides to save it and sets it free without considering the grave consequences of her actions.
Director Una Gunjak studied film at the University of Torino and editing at the National Film and TV School in UK, where she received her Master of Arts degree.

Dear Lastan! - directed by Irena Škorić
Dear Lastan! deals with universal themes of love, life, childhood and the pains of growing up.
The most popular schoolchildren's magazine in former Yugoslavia was called “Modra Lasta” (“Blue Swallow”). In 1969, it introduced readers to Lastan, an anonymous correspondent who answered letters from children and addressed their questions about secret crushes and friendship woes. For decades Lastan was a legend and the best kept secret in journalism. This film, for the first time after almost five decades, reveals his true identity.
Director Irena Škorić graduated film and TV directing at the Academy of Dramatic Art in Zagreb, Croatia. Her films have participated and won in numerous local and international festivals.

Toy Car - directed by Muamer Čelik
Toy Car is a story of the immigrant experience, specifically that of a family from Bosnia-Herzegovina who moves to Chicago. The film shows the struggles of a Bosnian immigrant family as the husband and wife drift apart, leaving their two young kids to pick up the pieces of a broken home.
Muamer Čelik is a Bosnian film director, currently residing in Chicago.

Love Island - directed by Jasmila Žbanić
The past comes back for a young couple vacationing at a popular Adriatic seaside resort. Grebo and his very pregnant wife Liliane are enjoying a holiday, but soon meet a young woman named Flora, who will put their young marriage to the test. Past secrets cannot stay hidden for long on Love Island.
Jasmila Žbanić is an acclaimed film director from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Her previous work includes Grbavica (2006), which won a Golden Bear for Best Film at the 56th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as On The Path (2010) and For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (2013).
Friday, May 22nd, 2015

Bad Blood - directed by Rialda Zukić
Filmmaker Rialda Zukić returns to her birthplace of Srebrenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina to document what her life could have been had she stayed there after the war. While in Srebrenica, she discovers that younger generations of Serbs and Bosniaks are still entrenched in the hostilities of a war long past.
Bad Blood is Rialda Zukić’s first documentary. She was drawn to eastern Bosnia after fleeing the region during the war in 1992 as a young child. She has produced work for PBS NewsHour Weekend and the Bowling Green Daily News.

Pretty Village - directed by Dave Evans
Twenty years after the end of the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina, concentration camp survivor Kemal Pervanić returns to his northwestern Bosnian village to find a community still at war with itself.
Extending beyond the realm of one Bosnian village near Prijedor, Pretty Village tells the universal story of the consequences of conflict on communities and friendships caught in the middle.
Director Dave Evans is an experienced film and TV director who has also worked on stage.

On the Verge - directed by Fanny Hagmeier
On the Verge is an essayistic portrait of Sarajevo. It shows personal reflections of the profound effect the city has on the filmmaker, while the city is undergoing several changes in early 2014, from the historic protests, to the historic flooding.
Director Fanny Hagmeier is a German visual artist whose work revolves around rather extreme physical experiences. She approaches her topics in a documentarian way - as authenticity and connecting close to the people is essential for her. She is fascinated about how versatile the body appears in adapting to constantly changing environments.

Bridges of Sarajevo- directed by 13 European directors
Bridges of Sarajevo is an omnibus containing 13 short films by 13 directors sewn together into one. The 13 directors are: Aida Begić, Leonardo Di Costanza, Jean-Luc Godard, Kamen Kalev, Isild Le Besco, Sergei Loznitsa, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Perišić, Cristi Puiu, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec and Teresa Villaverde.
The film contemplates Sarajevo’s present and past, including the 1914-18 period and the more recent war period 1992-95.
The filmmakers explore what the city has represented in European history over the past hundred years, and what Sarajevo stands for today in Europe.

Saturday, May 23rd, 2015
Sarajevo Assassination - directed by Nedim Lončarević
On June 28, 1914, Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie were assassinated in Sarajevo by young Serb nationalist Gavrilo Princip. And thus began the Great War…
Paul Gradvohl, a historian specializing in Eastern European studies, travels to Sarajevo to investigate the true motives behind the assassination. In his quest for answers, Gradvohl visits the crime scene, calls upon his colleagues in Sarajevo, Belgrade, Paris and Vienna, and scrutinizes numerous archives and private footage. To uncover the hidden truths of the assassination of the heir to the Austrian Empire, Gradvohl confronts various theories and leaves no rock unturned.
Director Nedim Lončarević is a documentary filmmaker and writer.

Seeking Truth in the Balkans - directed by June Vutrano, Erin Lovall, Ian Hoban and Steve Burgess
Seeking Truth in the Balkans comes on the 20th anniversary of the Dayton Accords, which ended the bloody war in Bosnia-Herzegovina and the greater region, as well as on the 20th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide.
The film explores and analyzes where things stand today in the Balkans, and if the prosecution of war criminals in the Hague has contributed as much as once hoped to peace and reconciliation within the region.
The screening will be followed by a Q&A with the filmmakers and analysts.

Mercy - directed by Benjamin Dizdarević
Mercy is a story about what happens when we are denied the freedom to do what we truly love. Eventually, our spirit breaks down and we take drastic measures to get free.
Nina, a young adolescent woman is living under pressured conditions with her father after the recent death of her mother. She begins to suffocate under the pressure and decides to do something radical in order to take the independence into her own hands.
Director Benjamin Dizdarević was born in Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1992 during the war and moved to Sweden at the age of two. He moved back to Sarajevo in 2011 where he started his new life as a film director.

A Quintet - directed by Ariel Shaban, Sanela Salketić, Roberto Cuzzillo, Elie Lamah and Mauro Mueller
Five up-and-coming, award-winning filmmakers with different cultural backgrounds tell five stories of people in various countries and walks of life who meet and bring down the inner walls in their lives.
Bringing their stories to the screen, this film raises questions some of us have in understanding different perspectives and perhaps trying to break prejudices we have.
The five segments take place in different regions of the world - Germany, the United States, Italy, the Balkans and Turkey - and they are all, in a way, connected to the multicultural center of Berlin, where all the filmmakers met each other for the first time at the talent forum of the Berlin International Film Festival.

Redemption - directed by Mirna Dizdarević
Redemption is defined as the action of saving or being saved from sin, error or evil.As such, it requires the efforts of those who committed sin, error or evil and those who were victims of it.
Olga and Goran, the main characters of this short film by Mirna Dizdarević, are unknowingly linked by a tragic past. One afternoon changes their neighborly relationship forever as they uncover how their lives and destinies are intertwined. Each is forced to confront their fears and grapple with the promise of redemption.
“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” - Mahatma Gandhi
Director Mirna Dizdarević was born in Sarajevo in 1992, and studied film directing at the Sarajevo Film Academy.

Racket - directed by Almir Buljugić
Racket deals with life and corruption in today’s Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Amil Pašić comes back to Sarajevo for the first time in a year to visit his father Mufid. Amil finds that local authorities are not doing enough to protect his father from a local criminal, so he decides to take things into his own hands.
Director Admir Buljugić is a Sarajevo native. He studied film directing at Columbia College in Chicago, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Racket is his feature debut.
For more information, please visit the official BHFF website.

For Those Who Can Tell No Tales (2013) Human Rights Watch 2014

Kym Vercoe plays a woman from Australia travels to Bosnia on vacation. While traveling around she stays in a hotel that she later finds out was used as a concentration camp.  While she is at first horrified at having been in a place that was where so many died, she's even more upset that not only didn't her guide book mention what happened but there is a weird silence in the village about the atrocities. Wanting answers she returns to "the scenes of the crime" to get answers

This is a good film about a difficult subject. The collision of how past crimes are remembered or not remembered is unfortunately a subject that we in this world are going to constantly have to deal with. How do we deal with the genocides in places like Bosnia, or say a terrorist attack like 9/11? How do you balance the need to remember so that it doesn't happen again with the desire for the parties involved who may want their little piece of infamy to just go away?

Its a difficult question and one that doesn't have easy answers.

For me this is more a film that I admire more than I love. I like what it is trying to do but at the same time I wish it wasn't so strident and preachy...actually its not that it's more that the film kind of insists that it is about something important and damn it you're going to listen. Yes it is about something, and yes I'm going to listen but could you please balance your tone which has flip flops  from wonderful slices of life bits to really important staged bits with our heroine on a kind of high horse. After a while I turned off. yea I stayed to the end but at the same time I walked away from the film feeling disappointed.

(In the films favor I will say that had I not seen some of the other wonderful films at the Human Rights Watch Film Festival I I think this would have played better)

Buried Land(2010) Or Tribeca Day 1 (with a mention of Road, Show)

Tonight I went to what is being billed as the World Premiere of Buried Land at the Tribeca Film Festival. This was the first time at the film festival for me, and all I can say its already been an interesting Festival.

There will be a full Tribeca post coming up, as will posts of any of the good films that I see at the festival.

Regrettably Buried Land will never see a fuller post here at Unseen Films beyond the few words of warning I'm going to impart.

This is a film that concerns a film crew going to make a documentary about possible pyramids in a small town in Bosnia. Its a mix of fact and fiction. It has a good opening three minutes and a good closing three minutes. In between there 81 minutes of pretentious tediousness. Its a film that will try your patience. I'm still trying to figure out why I stayed to the end, on the other hand I was the first out the door when the credits rolled.

This blog is suppose to be about good films so I won't waste your time any more other than to say this film isn't worth your time or money.

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Addendum
Look for a review of Road, Movie, after the festival. It's a film from India about a man driving a portable cinema for a friend. Its utterly charming. Its on Pay Per View during the festival and worth your time seeing it.